[webdev] Web Design Update: October 4, 2013

Fri Oct 4 06:28:07 CDT 2013

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 12, Issue 15, October 4, 2013.

An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web
design and development.

++ISSUE 15 CONTENTS.

SECTION ONE: New references.
What's new at the Web Design Reference site?
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/
New links in these categories:

01: ACCESSIBILITY.
02: EVALUATION & TESTING.
03: EVENTS.
04: JAVASCRIPT.
05: NAVIGATION.
06: TYPOGRAPHY.
07: USABILITY.

SECTION TWO:
08: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Images are Already About Accessibility
By Megan Erin Miller.
"...Images can greatly improve the accessibility of your site's
content, but we need to be careful to make our images accessible to
everyone by including appropriate alternative text, long descriptions,
and making sure they use appropriate color contrast. I hope this post
has been a helpful introduction to understanding some of the
accessibility considerations you should balance when adding an image
to your site. At the very least, I hope the alt text decision tree can
be a useful tool! Remember, it's better to do a little bit than
nothing at all, so if you're feeling overwhelmed, just start with the
small stuff."
https://swsblog.stanford.edu/blog/imagery-101-image-accessibility

Some Thoughts on Automated Web Accessibility Testing
By Karl Groves.
"...It means that we need to use it wisely. We need to apply the tool
at the right time and for the right reasons. We need to understand its
limitations and capabilities and use them in a manner that exploits
the capabilities as efficiently as possible. At that point, automation
will be viewed as the vital part of the developer's toolset that it
should be."
http://www.karlgroves.com/2013/09/29/some-thoughts-on-automated-web-accessibility-testing/

How to Prepare for Web Accessibility Before the Government Forces Your Hand
By Chris Minnick and Ed Tittel.
"The Department of Justice has been delaying Web accessibility updates
to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for years, but 2013 may
be when it finally happens. If your business already follows existing
accessibility guidelines, little will change. If you don't, this
article sorts out what you will likely have to do..."
http://www.cio.com/article/739512/How_to_Prepare_for_Web_Accessibility_Before_the_Government_Forces_Your_Hand

+02: EVALUATION & TESTING.

What Goes into a Usability Test Plan?
By Jeff Sauro.
"A usability test plan should not only lay out the framework of the
study, but also help identify problems with the methodology, metrics
or tasks while something can still be done to fix things. This blog
describes the common sections we use."
http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/usability-test-plan.php

+03: EVENTS.

JavaScript Accessibility Summit
October 10-11, 2013.
Herndon, Virginia, U.S.A.
http://www.deque.com/deque-partners-jquery-create-accessibility-summit

Web Accessibility Training
January 14-15, 2014.
Logan, Utah, U.S.A.
http://webaim.org/training/

+04: JAVASCRIPT.

Make Your Widgets Sing With Aria (Video)
By Jason Kiss.
Jason's presentation.
http://vimeo.com/73427435

Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.1
W3C First Public Working Draft 26 September 2013
http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-1.1/

Tips For Using Window in JavaScript
By Axel Rauschmayer.
"In web browsers, window refers to an object that contains the global
variables. This blog post explains how it works and when to use it."
http://www.2ality.com/2013/09/window.html

+05: NAVIGATION.

Four Dangerous Navigation Approaches that Can Increase Cognitive Strain
By Jen Cardello.
"Some navigation implementations risk pushing users into a state of
cognitive strain which lessens the likelihood of them taking desirable
actions."
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/navigation-cognitive-strain/

Learning From Mobile Navigation
By Paul Boag.
"Should we learn a lesson from mobile web design and apply
minimalistic navigation to larger screen websites?"
http://boagworld.com/usability/learning-from-mobile-navigation/

+06: TYPOGRAPHY.

Support a User's Ability to Resize Text
By Elle Waters.
"In this week's Best Practice of the Week (BPOW), we examine the best
ways to provide help for users who need to resize the text on your web
pages in order to read the content more easily."
http://simplyaccessible.com/bpow/resize-text/

+07: USABILITY.

User Expertise Stagnates at Low Levels
By Jakob Nielsen.
"Learning is hard work, and users don't want to do it; they don't
explore the user interface and don't know about most features."
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/stagnating-expertise/

User-Centric vs. Maker-Centric Language - 3 Essential Guidelines
By Janelle Estes.
"To engage users, website copy must speak to readers and not at them.
Include words people can relate to, and avoid jargon, business speak,
and feature-driven language."
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/user-centric-language/

Users Don't Hate Change, They Hate You
By Christina Wodtke.
"Change is expensive, even when it's free. Change is expensive in
relearning. Change is expensive when you feel like you no longer have
a choice in how you live your life. For change to be accepted, it
needs to first have real value to the user."
http://www.eleganthack.com/user-dont-hate-change-they-hate-you/

Mobile Design Details - Avoid The Spinner
By Luke Wroblewski.
"Conventional wisdom tells us that when things are going to take a
while, we should let people know. In most mobile applications that
translates to adding progress bars or spinners when something is
happening or loading. While the intentions behind these progress
indicators are good, the end result can actually turn out to be
bad..."
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1797

Performance Matters
By Jatinder Mann.
"While a decade ago it may have been okay to go brew a pot of coffee
while the computer was loading, today we all expect our software and
devices to be fast and responsive. The same holds true for web
performance. The load speed and responsiveness of a web application
play a critical role in our choice of which applications we want to
use. At the same time, how efficiently software runs plays a critical
role in device battery life. No one wants to be carrying around a
brick."
http://alistapart.com/column/performance-matters

[Section one ends.]

++ SECTION TWO:

+08: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

Accessibility Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/accessibility.html

Association Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/associations.html

Book Listings.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/books.html

Cascading Style Sheets Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/css.html

Color Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/color.html

Dreamweaver Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/dreamweaver.html

Evaluation & Testing Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/testing.html

Event Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/events.html

Flash Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/flash.html

Information Architecture Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/architecture.html

JavaScript Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/javascript.html

Miscellaneous Web Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/misc.html

Navigation Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/navigation.html

PHP Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/php.html

Sites & Blogs Listing.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/sites.html

Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/standards.html

Tool Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/tools.html

Typography Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/type.html

Usability Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/usability.html

XML Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/xml.html

[Section two ends.]

++END NOTES.

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+ SIGN OFF.

Until next time,

Laura L. Carlson
Information Technology Systems and Services
University of Minnesota Duluth
Duluth, MN U.S.A. 55812-3009
mailto:lcarlson at d.umn.edu

[Issue ends.]